PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USB Whitepapers for Embedded Systems

Costa Mesa, California, January 8, 2009 — To help overcome the lack of information available concerning the use of USB in embedded systems, Micro Digital has recently released four helpful white papers. These papers, have been written by Yingbo Hu, R&D Embedded Software Engineer. Their abstracts are listed below. These whitepapers, and others, are freely available on Micro Digital’s website at www.smxrtos.com/articles, as an embedded community service.

Ways to Use USB in Embedded Systems. This whitepaper, written by Mr. Hu and Mr. Moore has clear diagrams and brief descriptions of 11 ways to use USB in embedded systems. It states “USB usage in embedded systems so far has been largely centered on dealing with the loss of serial and parallel ports on PCs and laptops, the loss of parallel interface printers, and with capitalizing on the low cost and convenience of USB thumb drives for transporting information. However, USB offers many other capabilities that are available to solve other problems in the embedded space. We expect to see these uses grow in the future.”

How to Select a USB Host Controller. For developers with no USB experience, choosing the best USB controller for their product can be a daunting task. Based upon his experience in writing a large number of USB controller drivers, Mr. Hu provides some insight into the process.

Real Embedded USB Host Performance. The experience of many developers with USB is limited to its use with 3 GHz PC’s. Hence it is natural for them to assume that there is no problem achieving near wire-speed in their embedded applications. However, typical 32-bit embedded processors run about 50 times slower than modern PCs and smaller processors are even slower. All of the factors affecting USB performance in embedded systems are discussed in this white paper. This should help engineers to make the decision whether USB is the right choice to meet their performance objectives and, if so, what hardware should be selected and how the design should be implemented.

When to Use USB OTG. This brief article discusses when it is appropriate to use USB OTG (On The Go) in embedded systems. Most people think that if there is a need both to control USB peripherals and to connect to PCs or laptops, then they need OTG. This is not the case.

About Micro Digital

Micro Digital, Inc. has been in the embedded systems business for over 30 years and has been producing and selling embedded software products for 20 years. The company is dedicated to providing quality products and support for embedded systems at moderate prices.

Trademarks used above are the properties of their respective owners.

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